The ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) and Teesta water sharing deal will top the agenda when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh meet in New York on September 28 – on the sidelines of the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Prime Minister is scheduled to leave for New York on September 22 and return home on September 30.
In response to Bangladesh’s request, India has confirmed the meeting between the two Prime Ministers.
About the topics of discussion between the two leaders, foreign office sources said that understandably the issues relating to Teesta water sharing agreement and ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement would get highest priority on Bangladesh’s side.
The Congress-led Indian government has failed to introduce a Constitutional amendment bill concerning LBA at the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, during the just-concluded monsoon session. Earlier, repeated attempts failed to introduce the bill due to the stiff opposition of the opposition parties.
During a meeting with President Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban on Tuesday, Indian Minority Affairs Minister K Rahman Khan expressed the hope that the LBA would be ratified during the upcoming winter session of the parliament, which usually begins in the third week of November.
The Teesta water sharing agreement was scheduled to be signed during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Bangladesh visit in 2011, but it could not be inked due to the last-minute objection raised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Since then, there appears to be virtually no progress on this agreement.
Besides, the officials said that border killing, sub-regional cooperation and other issues of priorities would be raised during the meeting on the sidelines of the UNGA.
Meanwhile, British High Commissioner to Bangladesh met with Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque at his office on Wednesday afternoon.
“We discussed the forthcoming UNGA because on the sidelines of UNGA, there would be a meeting of the Commonwealth Foreign Ministers,” Gibson said after the meeting.
-With The Independent input
